Greetings all

Regarding drivers in general:

I usually manage to find what I'm looking for by googling on model numbers (e.g. www.driverguide.com), but I often end up having to register with a new site every time and often get asked to buy something. As I don't own a credit card, this is a waste of time. So, here's my question...

Does anyone have any favourite driver download websites to suggest?

For example, I'm currently looking for a driver for a scanner and as yet I've had no luck (Vuego scanner, model number: 6678-1BQ).

Any ideas welcome.

StrictlyMartin

Does anyone have any favourite driver download websites to suggest?

The best place for drivers is directly from the manufacturer's website.


For example, I'm currently looking for a driver for a scanner and as yet I've had no luck (Vuego scanner, model number: ).

http://www.benq.us

StrictlyMartin mumbled:
I'm currently looking for a driver for a scanner and as yet I've had no luck (Vuego scanner, model number: 6678-1BQ).

mjc replied:
http://www.benq.us

Not sure if this was a recommended link but I checked it out and got to:

http://www.benq.us/support/downloads/index.cfm?productline=9

which is a list of available scanner drivers. However, no sign of 6678-1BQ. Am I looking in the right place?

Cheers4now

StrictlyMartin

Yes, Benq is the 'real' manufacturer of your scanner...

There isn't a cross-reference...but it may be the c310 (U=USB, P=Parallel, S=SCSI).

There is also a very good chance that there just ISN'T a driver available for anything other than what came with it (in this case, most like just Win9x).

There is a large body of peripherals that are just not worth the effort to maintain...those that are dirt cheap to begin with are often made by one company and 'rebadged' by someone else and generally have little or no support, especially in the area of drivers, and nearly no support at all for an OS beyond what was included on the original driver disk. Many times the company's name that is on the product drops that line without even blinking, cutting off any/all support (or the rebadging company goes belly-up...which is what Vuego did). Of course, the model numbering scheme used on the product has very little meaning to the company that originally made it, so searching for drivers becomes a very frustrating an futile attempt.

Often, this results in devices that are useful only in the version of Windows that was in use when they were bought. These Win-only (often version locked, too) devices are one of the reasons Linux has a bad reputation. But, it really not Linux or Apple's fault...it is the crappy devices that rely on Windows to do half their job...